


black magic

by ofsinnersandsaints



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/M, First Kiss, Fluff, midnight talks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-07
Updated: 2019-09-07
Packaged: 2020-10-12 03:02:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,740
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20557142
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ofsinnersandsaints/pseuds/ofsinnersandsaints
Summary: have you ever thought about Jarett, coolest man in the world and overall badass, falling for bravest woman alive, and all around woman-in-charge Cassandra? because i have





	black magic

If asked, Jarett would say he was a man who learned his lessons and didn’t make the same mistake twice, but as he stood in the doorway to the Whitestone library he had to admit there were some lessons which couldn’t be taught.

He couldn’t stop himself from wanting what he couldn’t have.

“It’s after midnight, shouldn’t ladies like yourself be in bed?”

Cassandra didn’t startle at his voice, but that was likely because he’d made sure his footsteps were heavy as he walked down the corridor. He'd surprised her once and had seen the sheer terror on her face for half of a second before she’d hidden it behind walls so thick not even a dragon could barge it’s way through. Ever since, he made an effort to make sure she knew he was coming.

He didn’t ever want to put that look on her face again.

“Ladies like myself have many things to do, and not enough time in the day to do them all,” she responded, back straight as she put books back in their rightful place. “What are you doing up? You don’t normally have the last shift.”

Jarett tried not to read too much into the fact she knew which shifts he normally worked. Wouldn’t someone with her history want to know everything about everything? “Pietr has a girl,” he explained, walking into the room. “He wanted the night off to take her out.”

There’s was a sad smile on her face, something he could just barely see in the low light. “That was kind of you.”

“If I keep my people happy, they won’t want to leave.”

“It’s still kind, Jarett.”

He rested his hand on the butt of his crossbow as he studied her; she was dressed informally tonight which was a rare thing. She wore her clothes like he did his armor, but he knew from experience she was just as wicked with a sword as he was.

Whatever skills she’d lacked, Lady Vex had filled in the missing pieces. “If you don’t mind my asking, what’s so important it can’t wait until tomorrow?”

“Greyskull Keep is still sovereign property of Whitestone,” she answered and leaned against the library ladder. “It’s an ambassadorship waiting for an ambassador. I was just looking into the history of Whitestone to see if we’d ever had one before.”

“And?”

“We hadn’t,” Cassandra answered with a sigh. “We were so isolated, I think that’s why it was so easy for-“ she cut herself off.

“But you’re going to do things differently,” Jarett added quietly, stepping in when her words failed. “And Whitestone isn’t isolated anymore.”

From what he could tell, she’d kept herself blocked off from everyone, but the city itself? It had reached out and touched the world.

He was impressed and more than a little intimidated by what she’d been able to accomplish in the last few years.

Hell, he had a type, but at least this time he wouldn’t get executed for falling in- “Fuck.”

“What was that?” she asked, as the curse under his breath had been too quiet for her to hear, but he wondered if there was anyway she couldn’t hear the way his heart was stuttering.

“Are you okay?” she asked as she pushed away from the bookcase and walked towards him. “It’s not your scars, is it?”

She reached out and almost touched the skin on his neck. His scars covered half his body and had never fully healed despite the magic and blessings of Pike Trickfoot. They ached on occasion, stretching and pulling, but standing with Cassandra in the soft light, surrounded by the silence of books, and he hadn’t even thought of them once.

“They always give me trouble after a long week,” he answered. Not quite a lie, not exactly the truth.

What was he supposed to do?

Tell her he’d been mesmerized by her the first time he’s seen her? Straight shoulders and white knuckles, that shock of hair framing her face. That every day and month since, he’d admired her more and more because she never backed down and never flinched.

He’d seen her in the town square, had watched from a few paces away as a few of the townsfolk glared and whispered under their breaths. Nobody knew exactly what had happened inside the castle during the years the Briarwooods had control; but everyone had their suspicions on how she’d survived when the rest of her family had perished.

Jarett knew, the beauty of being friendly with Vox Machina and catching Scanlan on a particularly drunk and talkative night.

And every time he saw her, his heart became a little more involved. When she teased her brother, the spark of youth and vitality in her eyes, when she made the hard decisions and he watched as they weighed her down a little more.

When he realized what was happening he should have walked away, put some distance between himself and Cassandra, but who looked at the moon and wished it to stay on the other side of the horizon?

“You should rest more,” Cassandra was saying, and Jarett pulled himself back to the present as she took a small step back, putting more distance between them then he’d like. “You work too hard.”

“Said the rock to the boulder,” he teased and she smiled, a bit of a blush covering her cheeks at being called out.

“Fair enough.” She twisted a ring she had on her right hand, it had shown up a few years back and Jarett had never seen her without it since. “A part of me is terrified of you.”

“Say again?”

“I feel lightheaded, uncertain,” she answered, her fingers still twisting the ring. “No matter what I do, my thoughts keep circling back to you. It reminds me of being charmed.”

He stepped forward without thinking, a hand reaching out but not touching her. “Cassandra, I would never-“

“I know,” and the smile reached somewhere inside of him and squeezed tight. “You don’t have magic for one, and you’re too honorable by half. You fight dragons, Jarett. You defended my brother’s home, and mine.”

“To be fair, I _tried_ to fight a dragon- I mostly got my assed kicked.”

Cassandra smiled, the hint of a laugh in her exhale. “And the battle scars to prove you survived it.”

“I’m not the only who survived a fight I shouldn’t have,” he told her quietly. “Not the only one who has scars to prove how badass I am. Yours are just harder to see.”

Her face went soft, all the youth and love she’d been denied making her look her age for the first time in a while. “And there it is.”

“There what is?”

“You’ve charmed me, Jarett. And I know it’s not magic because that’s what this ring protects me from,” she lifted her hand so he could see it. “A gift from my sister-in-law.”

She looked down at it and he wished he knew what was happening, wished he could tamp down his expectations which were rising by the minute. He’d flown on Vex’s broom once, a lark after one too many beers, and he could feel the same exhilaration combined with the terrible fear of falling.

“About a year ago I thought it had stopped working,” she continued. “I was in my office, trying to work on something to do with farming, and I kept thinking about you. I’d seen you earlier that day in the courtyard, training the cadets and you were so beautiful I couldn’t think of anything else. I’ve felt that before.”

“Sweetheart,” he murmured, empathizing and wishing he could take away all the uncertainty and fear she’d ever felt. This time when he wanted to touch her, he did, and the way she leaned into the touch would have kept him alive for centuries.

“I went to Gilmore,” she admitted and sounded sheepish, but he thought he might have heard tears in her voice. “He happened to be in town and he said the ring was working just fine. He was the one who told me what was actually happening.”

“Gilmore?” Jarett asked, laughing because he would have given a year’s worth of salary to overhear that conversation.

“He was there,” she smiled. “And I wasn’t about to talk to Percy about this.”

Jarret brought up his other hand and framed her face with both of his. “What is ‘this?’”

“Affection,” she answered softly. “You affect me, Jarett. It’s why I’m here.”

The look he gave her must have conveyed his confusion, “I knew you worked late tonight. It’s why I’m here, in the library. I wanted to see you. But if you don’t-“

“I want to kiss you,” he interrupted her. “Can I?”

“Please.”

When he kissed her, it was like breathing for the first time; like the moment when a cleric brought him back from the brink of death and everything stopped burning.

He thought to be careful, to go slow, but one of the things he knew about Cassandra but something she rarely showed was how well she knew her own mind, and she wasn’t about to accept half measures from a badly scarred man.

Cassandra ran her hands up his arms to his shoulders, pulling him to her.

Jarett dropped his hands from her face so he could wrap his arms around her and kiss her like he’d been thinking of for more than a year.

“Why now,” he asked when he pulled away, resting his forehead against hers. “If you’ve known for a year, why now?”

“Because I had to wait till I was ready,” she answered honestly. “And I need a date to my brother’s wedding.”

He laughed, pressing a kiss to the tip of her nose. “I’d love to talk about that more, but I’m supposed to be on rounds tonight. I have a castle to protect.”

There was a moment of indecision on her face before she nodded. She wouldn’t risk the safety of the castle, and neither would he. “I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“I’ll see you tomorrow, Lady Cassandra.”

Her smile was all he wanted for the rest of his life and he leaned forward to kiss it, unable to resist the taste.

“Good night, Jarett.”

“Until next time.”

He was smiling when he left her in the library, and already counting down the hours and minutes until he’d get to see her again.


End file.
